Saturday, August 26, 2006

MM Vol 12 - Number 150 - Beatles

As all endings (yes, its confusing because i start at the end) i like to end a mellow mix volume with true classics and without a doubt, this is one of those songs.

Lennonstarted writing the song while reading the Daily Mail newspaper. Two stories caught his eye; one was about the death of Tara Browne, the heir to the Guinness fortune, and friend of The Beatles, who drove through red lights at the speed of 110 mph in his Lotus Elan and crashed into the back of a parked lorry in Redcliffe Square, South Kensington, London on December 18, 1966. He was dead at 21. The other was about a plan to fill 4,000 potholes in the streets of Blackburn, Lancashire. However, the song did not include a literal description of Browne's fatal accident. Lennon said:

“I didn't copy the accident. Tara didn't blow his mind out. But it was in my mind when I was writing that verse. The details of the accident in the song — not noticing traffic lights and a crowd forming at the scene — were similarly part of the fiction."

Lennon also sang about a film in which "the English army had just won the war" in the song. Although Lennon is not known to have explained his exact intention, it is thought to be a reference to Lennon's role in the surrealist comedy film How I Won the War, which saw release in October of that year. McCartney then added the middle section, which was a short piano piece he had been working on previously, with lyrics about a commuter whose uneventful morning routine leads him to drift off into a reverie. McCartney also contributed the line "I'd love to turn you on," which serves as a chorus to the first section of the song. Lennon explained:

"I had the bulk of the song and the words, but he contributed this little lick floating around in his head that he couldn't use for anything. I thought it was a damn good piece of work."

McCartney explained that he wrote the piece as a wistful recollection of his younger years:

"It was another song altogether, but it happened to fit. It was just me remembering what it was like to run up the road to catch a bus to school (Liverpool Institute for Boys with George Harrison), having a smoke and going into class... it was a reflection of my school-days. I would have a Woodbine (a cheap unfiltered British cigarette) and somebody would speak and I would go into a dream."

McCartney's section of the song was followed by a short wordless vocal chorus which segued back into Lennon's part of the song. On 27 August1992, Lennon's original handwritten lyrics to the song were auctioned, eventually selling for US$87,000 (£50,000).